Meet The “Brats”

Brats is a bitter, self-important piece created by a man who has been to an excessive amount of therapy. The documentary explores the end of the line consequences of an article published 40 years ago about some young movie actors. Andrew McCarthy, the auteur behind this film, goes around the country talking to all of his more famous pals. McCarthy believes that this article had a profound impact on his life/career, and this film is his way of contextualizing his feelings. However, funnily enough McCarthy was never even mentioned in the original article. 

Now, I do not necessarily believe that McCarthy has to be specifically named in the article to feel attacked, as he fits into a lot of the “brat-pack criteria”. Which granted is completely made up. However, numerous times during the film McCarthy brings up the idea of jealousy. He says that the American youth was collectively jealous of all of the brat-pack members. He even singles out the author of the original article, David Blum. While this may be true, who am I to say, I cannot help but eye-roll at McCarthy proclaiming that the world was jealous of him. 

During McCarthy’s talk with Emilio Estevez, the original “brat”, they bring up the idea that the article blindsided them. They both had this idea of what their career was supposed to be, and the brat-pack article derailed that idea. This is a fair thought, and might even warrant some remorse. However, bringing this up 40 years later after a potentially squandered career makes it seem like McCarthy is blaming the article. In defense of David Blum he named some of the most successful actors ever in his article including: Tom Cruise, Nic Cage, Sean Penn, Matt Dillion etc. So did David Blum ruin Tom Cruise’s career? No. 

There is an interesting thought brought up in the film, and that is the idea of star actors being recycled every generation. This as a thematic concept is very interesting, and is executed very well in the movie Babylon. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that the brat pack article had anything to do with McCarthy or Judd Nelson or Emilio Estevez falling out of public favor. This is just a phenomenon as old as Hollywood. As time moves on the stars of an era will fade out of favor. Some may continue their success, but some will fizzle out. 

Was David Plum out of line publicly calling these young actors brats? I am not sure. It is pretty mean, but I am sure they were brats. Plum tells stories of Estevez and Nelson’s bratty behavior. Rob Lowe had sex with a 16 year old 3 years after this article, and was definitely a brat. McCarthy may or may not have been a brat, but he is annoying now. Tom Cruise has never made a mistake in his life. 

McCarthy gets to talk to Plum at the end of this film. The conversation is slightly contentious, but the two seem to be friendly at least for show. Plum brings up a Woody Allen quote in which he essentially says that the tabloid-press is worth it for the knicks tickets. McCarthy does not immediately understand Plum’s point, but Allen is basically saying that fame has its negative and positive consequences and to Allen this is worth it. While this sort of media attention is a bad thing for a human’s psyche, maybe long-term success in Hollywood is dependent on your ability to understand the consequences of your profession and roll with the punches. And falling off is okay, but I am not going to enjoy a movie in which all you do is blame someone else for it.